Background

The aim of this study was to compare the reproducibility, agreement, and sensitivity of pulsed-wave Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) versus spectral Doppler assessment of right ventricular (RV) myocardial performance index (MPI) in midgestation fetuses in both a normal and a disease state.

Methods

RV MPI was calculated using pulsed-wave DTI and spectral Doppler in normal pregnancies (n = 69) and in women with pregestational diabetes (n = 51). Intraobserver and interobserver variability and agreement were evaluated using Bland-Altman analysis. Student's t tests were used for comparisons of differences.

Results

In normal fetuses, RV MPI derived by the two methods showed no statistical difference, were interchangeable (DTI, 0.51 ± 0.10; spectral Doppler, 0.50 ± 0.12; P = .686), and were in agreement by Bland-Altman analysis. However, in fetuses of mothers with diabetes, the two methods produced different RV MPI measurements (DTI, 0.56 ± 0.10; spectral Doppler, 0.51 ± 0.12; P < .001). Intraobserver and interobserver bias was lower for DTI.

Conclusions

The DTI method of measuring fetal RV MPI is more sensitive, has less variability and more precision, and is better able to demonstrate subtle abnormalities in cardiac function than the spectral Doppler method in diabetic versus normal pregnancies.

Objectives

Optimal perinatal management of total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR) involves timely identification followed by surgical correction. Antenatal diagnosis, however, has long been a challenge. We aimed to identify consistent prenatal sonographic features in this condition in a large cohort in whom the diagnosis was made antenatally and confirmed postnatally.

Methods

We conducted a systematic retrospective review of the 2-dimensional and Doppler sonographic features that had helped make the diagnosis of TAPVR at our institution from 2001 to 2012.

Results

Twenty-six patients had prenatal diagnosis of TAPVR (mean gestational age, 24.1 weeks). Four of the fetuses with a prenatal diagnosis represented isolated cases of TAPVR; 22 had heterotaxy syndrome, additional cardiac abnormalities, or both. Prenatally diagnosed abnormal pulmonary venous connections were supracardiac (type I) in 18 cases, cardiac (type II) in 1, and infradiaphragmatic (type III) in 7. Lack of a visible connection of the pulmonary veins to the atrium (100%) and the presence of a visible venous confluence on axial 4-chamber views (96%) were the most consistent findings. Cardiac asymmetry and the presence of additional vertical venous channels on 3-vessel or axial abdominal views were also noted but less consistently. Abnormal pulmonary venous spectral Doppler findings were present in 25 of the 26 fetuses.

Conclusions

The diagnosis of TAPVR can be suspected on standard axial views included in second-trimester obstetric screening examinations of the fetal heart and confirmed on fetal echocardiography with the use of pulsed wave Doppler imaging. Clues recognizable on obstetric sonographic screening have the potential to contribute to increasing the diagnostic yield for prenatal detection of TAPVR.

Introduction

Tricuspid valve (TV) size at birth correlates with intervention strategy in patients with severe pulmonary stenosis (SPS) or pulmonary atresia/intact ventricular septum (PA/IVS). Prenatal features that might predict postnatal TV size have not been well studied. We hypothesized that prenatal echocardiographic measurements predict the postnatal TV Z-score in fetuses with SPS and PA/IVS.

Materials and methods

We identified 16 neonates (gestational age 28 ± 4.8 weeks) with a fetal diagnosis of SPS or PA/IVS from 2001 to 2010. Measurements were performed offline. ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analysis was used to generate AUC (areas under the curve) for each of the variables.

Results

AUC was 0.94 for tricuspid to mitral valve (TV/MV) ratio, 0.88 for TV Z-score, and 0.85 for TV inflow duration. A cut-off value of >0.63 for TV/MV yielded a sensitivity of 78%, specificity of 100% for predicting postnatal TV Z-score >-3. Neonates with TV Z-score ≥-3 and all fetuses with antegrade flow across the pulmonary valve or more than moderate tricuspid regurgitation had biventricular circulation in follow-up.

Conclusion

Fetal TV/MV >0.63 predicts favorable TV Z-score at birth in patients with SPS and PA/IVS. Antegrade pulmonary valve flow and more than moderate tricuspid regurgitation also conferred a favorable outcome.

Background

A growing body of evidence indicates that right ventricular dysfunction in patients with palliated hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) originates in fetal life. In this study, the systolic-to-diastolic time index (SDI) was used to study the presence of ventricular dysfunction in single right ventricles in fetuses with HLHS or evolving HLHS and to assess whether this dysfunction is related to increase preload, myocardial performance, or interventricular interaction.

Methods

Echocardiograms from 78 fetuses with HLHS and 10 with evolving HLHS were retrospectively compared with those of 78 normal control fetuses. Fetuses with HLHS were further grouped according to morphology of the left ventricle (LV): not visible (n = 35) or visible (n = 43). Spectral Doppler signals obtained from right ventricular inflow (blood pool) and tissue Doppler from the tricuspid lateral annulus were analyzed. The SDI was calculated as the ratio of the ejection time plus isovolumic contraction and relaxation times to the diastolic filling time. E/A and E/e' ratios, cardiac output, preload index, and Tei index were also calculated.

Results

Fetuses with HLHS demonstrated significantly elevated right ventricular SDI values by both blood pool Doppler and Doppler tissue imaging compared with control subjects (1.89 ± 0.33 vs 1.58 ± 0.29 [P < .001] and 2.1 ± 0.57 vs 1.66 ± 0.31 [P < .001], respectively). Changes in filling time rather than ejection time predominated. Fetuses with HLHS with visible LVs and those with evolving HLHS had significantly higher SDI values than fetuses with HLHS without visible LVs (no visible LV, 1.75 ± 0.22; visible LV, 2 ± 0.36; P = .001; evolving HLHS, 2.19 ± 0.68; P < .001). SDI was correlated with the Tei index (R = 0.58) and was more sensitive than the Tei index in identifying differences between the HLHS subgroups.

Conclusions

Fetuses with evolving and overt HLHS exhibit abnormally increased SDI values in utero. This difference is likely related to inherently pathologic interventricular interactions and/or diastolic dysfunction of the right ventricle in fetuses with HLHS.

Background

Small left heart structures are observed in fetuses with left-sided congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Fetoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO) in mid-gestation promotes lung growth in fetuses with CDH, however cardiac effects of FETO are poorly described. We studied the effects of FETO on cardiac structure size at birth, hypothesizing that left heart structures would be larger in neonates who had undergone fetal intervention.

Methods/results

We performed retrospective measurements of atrioventricular and semilunar valve and pulmonary artery diameters, ventricular lengths, left ventricular end-diastolic volume indexed (LVEDVi) to body surface area. 35 patients were studied (9 FETO, 26 controls). All fetuses had liver herniation and a lung-to-head ratio <1 at fetal presentation. At birth the intervention group had larger LVEDVi (16.8 vs. 12.76 ml/m(2), p < 0.05), LV length Z-score (-2.05 vs. -4, p < 0.01), LV:RV length ratio (1.43 vs. 1.04, p < 0.05), LPA diameter Z-score (+1.71 vs. -1.04, p < 0.05), and better growth of aortic valve (-2.18 FETO, -3.3 controls, p < 0.01). There was a trend toward higher LV output in the FETO group.

Conclusions

Left heart structures and LPA were larger postnatally in patients with CDH who underwent FETO than in those who did not. Hemodynamic alterations are introduced with tracheal occlusion that are associated with alterations in ventricular loading and may influence growth.